Japanese authorities have notified the IAEA that efforts to restore power for the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant are on-going. As of 19 March at 21:46 UTC, the power centre at Unit 2 had received electricity. Work to restore electricity to Units 3 and 4 is continuing.

White "smoke" was reported seen emanating from Unit 2 on 21 March at 9:22 UTC. Grayish smoke was reported seen emanating from unit 3 at 6:55 on 21 March, and this was reported to have "died down" two hours later. All workers at Units 1 through 4 evacuated after the smoke at Unit 3 was seen. The IAEA is seeking further information at this time on the status of workers at the site.

Japanese authorities have also reported that water has been sprayed over the Common Spent Fuel Pool; this started on 21 March at 1:37 UTC. The IAEA is seeking further information on this development and will report further as updates are received from Japan.

On Monday, 21 March 2011, Graham Andrew, Special Adviser to the IAEA Director General on Scientific and Technical Affairs, briefed both Member States and the media on the current status of nuclear safety in Japan. His opening remarks, which he delivered at 15:30 UTC at the IAEA headquarters in Vienna, are provided below:

"1. Current Situation

We are seeing some steady improvements, but the overall situation at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant remains very serious. High levels of contamination have been measured in the locality of the plant.

The restoration of electrical power to Unit 2, which we reported yesterday, is good news. AC power is available and an electrical load check to pumps, etc. is currently on-going. Work on the restoration of off-site power to Units 3 and 4 is also underway.

Seawater is still being injected into the reactor pressure vessels of Units 1, 2 and 3.

Pressure in the reactor pressure vessel and the containment vessel drywell at Unit 3, which had been rising yesterday, has again fallen.

Water is being sprayed periodically into the spent fuel pools at Units 2, 3 and 4. The Agency still lacks data on water levels and temperatures in the spent fuel pools at Units 1, 2, 3 and 4.

Following the restoration of cooling at Units 5 and 6, temperatures in the spent fuel pools continue to decline.

2. Radiation Monitoring

As I reported yesterday, the IAEA radiation monitoring team took measurements at distances from 56 to 200 km from the Fukushima nuclear power plant. At two locations in Fukushima Prefecture gamma dose rate and beta-gamma contamination measurements have been repeated. These measurements showed high beta-gamma contamination levels. Measurements by the IAEA and the Japanese authorities were taken at the same time and locations. The Japanese and independent IAEA measurements gave comparable results.

Measurement of gamma dose rate and beta-gamma contamination were taken on 20 March at more locations. The dose-rate results ranged from 2-160 microsieverts per hour, which compares to a typical natural background level of around 0.1 microsieverts per hour. High levels of beta-gamma contamination have been measured between 16-58 km from the plant. Available results show contamination ranging from 0.2-0.9 MBq per square metre.

Further measurements are needed to assess possible contamination beyond the area currently monitored - both closer to the facility and further way. We have no contamination measurements showing that that contamination levels are high at greater distances than 58 km from the plant, but this cannot be excluded.

I have no further information available regarding the measurement of alpha radiation. As I reported yesterday, from the measurements taken within the evacuation zone (20 km), no significant alpha radiation had been detected at that time.

In the coming days, the IAEA monitoring team will continue to take measurements in the Fukushima prefecture. We are seeking data from Japan on radioactivity contamination measurements for the rest of Japan.

Some results on the monitoring of foodstuffs have been made available by Japan to the IAEA and FAO. Results provided recently by the Japanese authorities range up to 55 000 Bq per kg of I-131 in samples of Spinach taken in in the Ibaraki Prefecture. These high values are significantly above Japanese limits for restricting food consumption (i.e. 2 000 Bq/kg). I understand that the Japanese Government is actively considering relevant precautionary measures and has instructed four Prefectures (Ibaraki, Totigi, Gunma, Fukushima) to refrain, for the time being, from distributing two types of vegetables (spinach and kakina) from these Prefectures and milk from Fukshima.